


Seven Minutes in Heaven

by Frigid



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Character Death, a lot of it actually, admiral gerrel has serious regrets, do the quarians even have a heaven, everyone's dead jim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-09
Updated: 2014-04-09
Packaged: 2018-01-18 19:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1439896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frigid/pseuds/Frigid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Admiral Gerrel and Rael'Zorah have one last conversation after Gerrel refuses to stand down on Rannoch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Minutes in Heaven

He watches as the geth fleet tears into the Rayya, Kar’Danna’s calls of distress echoing throughout the entire fleet radio. Huge strips of metal are torn away from the liveship as it breaks into pieces, and it’s these chunks of metal that finally down the Neema, unable to support its shields against a barrage of weaponry and broken spacecraft. The mass effect fields begin to falter, the ship falling to the land of Rannoch below.

The fleeing of his bridge crew barely makes an impact on his senses. Han’Gerrel is more concerned with the rapidly approaching ground. There’s no time to reach any escape pods. The ship’s mass effect fields are barely working at this point. He’s thrown straight into the flight consoles in front of him and everything

everything

stops.

——

Han never thought he’d be okay with an afterlife of flat beaches and cliffs.. He’d never really thought about what the quarians would do if they did get the homeworld back. 

He’s not alone here though. They sit together on a precipice, watching the sea as the waves gently flow onto the shore. Below them, Tali and her mother embrace, watching as Raan weeps.

Rael is the first to break the silence.

"So you didn’t manage it."

Han doesn’t want to talk about it. He knows. He’s responsible and  _he knows_. He doesn’t want Rael’s lectures. Rael is hardly an angel either.

 _Shit_. He bites his lip to try and hold back the tears. Rael watches him for a while.

"We needed you." Han mutters, almost to himself. He still believes they could have done it… but only with Rael.

And Rael went and got himself killed. Bosh’tet.

Rael sighs. He tucks his legs up and wraps his arms around them.

"It doesn’t make much difference, Han. We would… we would have died anyway. I.. would have made it worse. Do you really think I would have listened to anyone either?"

He knows Rael is right. Rael’s always right. 

Except he wasn’t.

"I’m still mad at you." Han finally turns to look at Rael. Han doesn’t know what Rael’s face had looked like 6 months before, when he died, but he’s willing to bet it wasn’t the face of a man haunted by his demons.

"I know. And I’m not sorry." Han jerks back at this. That wasn’t expected. Rael’s face may be drawn, but his eyes are clear. He fixes Han with a stare, daring Han to look away.

"I mean it, Han. Maybe I didn’t want to die, but you needed me gone. You always followed me. You needed to take charge."

He doesn’t know what to think. He drops his gaze to the beach again.

There are so many faces that he knows down there. Tali. Raan. Koris. Kal. His crew. He doesn’t want to go down there yet. He doesn’t ever. 

In his entire life, Han hasn’t ever felt shame until now. Guilt, yes. He’s guilty of everything and he’s feeling it now.

But he’s never felt shame, and now he’s ashamed. Ashamed to go down there and face them.

Ashamed to admit he was wrong.

"You won’t be going down yet, Han." He turns to look, but Rael is getting up, leaving.

"No.. No!" Rael can’t leave him. He’s been so alone. He needs Rael to help him.

Rael ignores him, walking towards the path down the cliff. Han tries to follow him, but finds that somehow Rael draws away from him, even as Han runs while Rael walks. He can’t stop the tears flowing now, and his vision blurs. He tries to wipe the tears away, but he still can’t see. Han doesn’t understand how it could have gotten so dark already.

He reaches out, trying to grab for Rael, only to hear the sound of metal. Blinking, he-

The Neema. Han gasps, turning himself over and pulling his mask off as his stomach empties itself over the floor of the bridge. Shakily he gets to his feet, looking outside at Rannoch. It should be night, but the thousand burning corpses of ships light the sky.

He’s so alone.


End file.
